Movies

The Adventures of Tintin movie tie-in books

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Here in New Zealand we have to wait until Boxing Day to see The Adventures of Tintin on the big screen.  I certainly can’t wait to see it as the trailers and clips I’ve seen so far have been amazing.  While I wait for Boxing Day I’ve been checking out the cool movie tie-in books that Bantam have released.  There are 6 books all together and they are all aimed at different age groups.

The Adventures of Tintin Novel by Alex Irvine is a novelization of the screenplay which was written by the legendary team of Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish.  This novel tells the story of the movie and is aimed at children 9+.  It’s a very different experience reading this than the original graphic novels because you don’t have any images to help tell the story.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Chapter Book, adapted by Stephanie Peters, is the story of the movie written as a chapter book aimed younger readers (7-9 year olds).  Unlike the novel, the chapter book has photos from the movie to add some excitement to the story.  The chapter book tells the whole story of the movie, but is very abridged.

There are also two Colour First Readers, The Mystery of the Missing Wallets and Danger at Sea.  These two first readers take a particular part of the story and simplify it for those children who are just starting to read.  They are full of colourful photos from the movie and are perfect for readers who are comfortable tackling new words and starting to read on their own.  There is also Tintin’s Daring Escape, a picture book that’s perfect for sharing with young Tintin fans.

My favourite of all the Tintin movie tie-in books is the Sticker Book.  It includes games and puzzles, as well as over 100 full-colour stickers.  Children could stick them in the book, save them for something special, or stick them all over their school books.

I’m a huge Tintin fan so I think it’s great to see these movie tie-in books.  I’m sure the movie and these wonderful books will help to introduce Tintin to a whole new generation.  If you need any last minute Christmas gift ideas or just want something special to keep the kids entertained over the Christmas break, head to your bookstore and grab The Adventures of Tintin movie tie-in books.

The Hugo Movie Companion by Brian Selznick

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Two of my favourite things in the world are books and movies, so you can imagine my excitement when I saw the Hugo Movie Companion.  The Invention of Hugo Cabret is one of my all time favourite books because of the combination of words and pictures, and I can’t wait to see the movie, which is directed by Martin Scorsese. 

The Hugo Movie Companion is a behind-the-scenes look at how Brian Selznick’s book was made into a movie, from the vision of the director, to the costumes, make-up, sets, and editing the footage into the final movie.   I was totally engrossed in the book from beginning to end because Brian takes the reader through the process of making the movie.  You learn about all the roles that are needed to make a movie, from the director to the animal trainer.  There are biographies of each of the actors and film crew, with information about their role in the movie.  The book is filled with stunning photos from the movie (some beside Brian’s original illustrations), diagrams, sketches, and historical material from the French cinema archives.  I was really interested to read Martin’s reasons for choosing to film in 3D, as it seems to be somewhat overused these days.

One of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much is that it’s written by Brian Selznick himself.  You get the impression that Brian is incredibly happy with how the film has turned out and how Martin Scorsese has portrayed his characters.  The Hugo Movie Companion is the perfect gift for anyone (kids and adults) who are fans of Brian’s book or just love movies.

The Art of The Adventures of Tintin

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If you’re as excited about The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn as I am you’ll be watching all the different movie trailers, looking at images from the movie, and maybe even wishing you were Tintin.  I loved the cartoon series of Tintin as well as the books and the movie looks amazing.  While you wait for the movie, there is an amazing book that you should check out called The Art of The Adventures of Tintin.

I find it really interesting finding out how movies are made, how they choose the actors to play the characters, what costumes they choose, and how they decide where to shoot the movie.  The Art of the Adventures of Tintin is overflowing with all this information about The Secret of the Unicorn.  There are introductions by the brilliant Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson who are directing and producing the movie.  They talk about why they decided to make this movie and how important it was to get the details correct.  The author of the book (and Lead Conceptual Designer for the movie), Chris Guise takes you on a kind of tour of the movie, showing you some of the amazing art work and design from the team at Weta Workshop that has gone into the movie.

The book is split into four sections: The Film Makers, The Beginning, The Characters, and The Environments.  The Beginning gives some background on Tintin’s creator, Herge, and shows you how the designers came up with the look of the movie.  My favourite section of the book is The Characters.  You get to see what Tintin could have looked like in the movie, and I really think they picked the right image for the movie, because some the early images look pretty strange.  You see how they created all the main characters and find out how they made them look so realistic.  The Environments shows you how the designers made the sets, props and vehicles look exactly like Herge imagined them.

If you’re a Tintin fan or even just like seeing how movies are made, The Art of the Adventures of Tintin is the perfect book for you.  There is so much detail and so many images in this book that it will keep you entertained for hours.  I can’t wait to see how all these aspects of the film have come together when The Secret of the Unicorn is released in New Zealand on 26th December.